DiscoverSUTD is a 3-weeks long introduction to the SUTD community. It is conducted on 14 September 2020 - 2 October 2020. This event is collaboratively brought to you by the various Fifth Rows, faculty, pillars, departments (which include SUTD Housing) and research laboratories in SUTD.

The main event page serves as the starting point for your SUTD journey. Within this page, there is a community calendar, session sign-ups and speaker biographies for our flagship event, the SUTD Human Library.

Now, before you continue, you are highly recommended to bookmark this page! This guide will be updated continuously as we receive feedback throughout the event. Through this guide, you will be able to learn more about what SUTD can offer.

What you'll learn

These are the key areas of DiscoverSUTD:

  1. DiscoverPeople: Human Library
  2. DiscoverPlaces
  3. DiscoverPillars
  4. Discover5thRows

Over the next few pages, we'll take you through what we've planned in each area, and why you should attend these activities! You'll find a detailed breakdown on the sign-up process in Section 7 of this guide: Calendar.

Last but not least, we have a Telegram group and a Discourse forum. You're encouraged to join them and use them to ask questions or report problems/feedback to your seniors.

A Human Library allows YOU to borrow "books". These books are real people: faculty, staff, researchers and seniors. When you borrow a book, you sit down with them and have a conversation about their experiences both inside and outside of SUTD.

Every single book will have a bio that gives you an idea of what conversation topics you might expect! You can read all the bios right here to find out more about your favourite books.

Among the 20+ books include:

During the Human Library, you can expect to gain unique insights into the various aspects of being a part of the SUTD community, as well as the work experiences and lessons learnt by faculty/researchers throughout their careers, giving you a better understanding of the wider world.

SUTD has many research labs located all around the campus. We will list down all the different research laboratories and groups here for you to take a look at!

EPD/ISTD Research Centres

ASD Research Groups

Other Research Centres & Groups

Other Physical Spaces

Our pillar years are where you find your passion. Don't miss out this chance to hear from the people who designed the curriculum that you will be taking.

Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD)

Venue: Microsoft Stream.

Date and time: Thursday, 17 September 2020 (2:00pm to 4:00pm).

You can learn more about ASD on their website.

Engineering Product Development (EPD)

Venue: Microsoft Stream.

Date and time: Thursday, 17 September 2020 (2:00pm to 4:00pm).

You can learn more about EPD on their website.

Engineering Systems and Design (ESD)

Venue: Zoom Meeting.

Date and time: Thursday, 17 September 2020 (2:00pm to 3:30pm).

Sign up here!

You can learn more about ESD on their website.

Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD)

Venue: Microsoft Stream.

Date and time: Thursday, 17 September 2020 (2:00pm to 4:00pm).

You can learn more about ISTD on their website.

There are 20+ sessions designed just for you! These include:

That's a lot of sessions so you can use the event calendar to help sort them out for you! You will be able to sign up from there as well.

There are a great many things going on during the DiscoverSUTD period. Hence, we've prepared an event calendar to help you get a bird's eye view of what exciting activities are happening on each day!

The calendar can be accessed at https://opensutd.org/DiscoverSUTD-2020/calendar.html.

By clicking on the event name, you will be brought to the event abstract where you can find out more details about the event and sign up for the event itself:

  1. Click on the event you're interested in.
  2. From there, you will be able to see all the information about the event.
  3. If you wish to attend, click the sign-up link (not all events require a sign-up).
  4. To fill in the Microsoft Form, you will need to sign-in with your SUTD Microsoft Account.
  5. After submitting the form, you will be considered as registered for the event.

Sign up early because some sessions have limited vacancies!

At SUTD, we love free food, or as we call it, DSBJ (Don't Say Bo Jio).

To celebrate the start of your SUTD adventure, we're going to be organising supper several times a week! You can come over on a sign-up basis. We will be having supper sessions in the Multi-Purpose Hall 1 & 2 at 8pm to 9pm (first session) and 9.15pm to 10.15pm (second session) on the following dates:

Food is one of the things that matter to us the most! Within the school, there are a few eateries that students go to if they fancy something outside the canteen.

A couple of restaurants at Changi City Point (CCP) offers food at prices that are friendlier for students. CCP is within walking distance, one MRT stop away (Expo MRT). There is also a shuttle bus that runs at 30-minute intervals (starting at 11:15am and ending at 7:45pm).

Fancy heading out a bit further? Want to treat yourself to a job well done? A mere two MRT stops away (and with no transfers required) is Tampines, with the following excellent, if a bit hard on your wallet, food places:

Jewel@Changi Airport

Blogs such as TheSmartLocal, TimeOut and DanielFoodDiary have written so much about Jewel. Guess what? We're literally two MRT stops away! If we were to list the number of restaurants there, it would take up the rest of the page... so we'll leave you to explore it yourself!

There are three housing blocks for students: Block 59 (nearest to campus), Block 57 (middle) and Block 55 (furthest from campus). Block 59 and Block 55 have nice rooftop areas on Level 12 with great views and some benches.

Facilities

TL;DR

The format of the room code is [Building].[Floor][Room]. For example, 1.308 references a room in Building 1, Level 3, Room 8, which happens to be TT1.

Details

After some time in school, you would realise that rooms in our school are often referred to using code numbers (e.g., 2.716, 3.109 or 5.401). Here's a quick breakdown of what this code means to ease getting yourself around:

Also, if you need to go across buildings, the following levels are interconnected in this fashion:

Spaces to work after class are not limited to your cohort classrooms. Here is a quick list of alternatives that are used by your seniors:

Time is short in SUTD and 4 years can pass by you in a flash. Here are some suggestions to help you get the most out of your time here in SUTD.

The SUTD curriculum provides you with robust theoretical foundations and bare minimum practical foundations, which might not be sufficient for thriving in the working world. And in fact, many of the more "applied" courses occur late in your undergrad career (Term 6 onwards). This is after your internship opportunities and about the time when you begin your job hunt.

In our experience, projects and technical skills can weigh far more heavily than grades can. It is important to avoid focusing solely on grades, as it is very important to bolster your knowledge with practical and technical skills for the career path you at looking for.

As such you should be prepared to develop your skills during your own time:

We recommend to spend Term 1 joining a UROP or specialist clubs and societies to try to bolster your skills! Take advantage of the lower academic pressure to invest in your technical abilities. Remember, no matter how well or badly you do, every grade is still recorded as a 'PASS' in Term 1.

Then, with a foundation, start diving into a deeper project or discipline in Term 2 immediately. Pillar years can get quite hectic, and many students find they no longer have the time to spend self-learning technical skills then. Your Freshmore year is really the best time to get a firm technical foundation!

That said, don't go around failing subjects! Grades are still relevant. They help you to open up a lot of opportunities in school (like exchange programmes), and are important for pursuing further studies as well as qualifying for careers in certain sectors (particularly the Government and Academia sectors).

Doors are always open!

In SUTD, the faculty and staff are always willing to engage with students. Email professors directly if you're interested in their work or if you have an interesting idea and need some help.

Outside of school, you'll often realise that people are pretty welcoming as well. Don't be afraid to cold call companies for opportunities such as internship or mentorship. It is common for students to get better responses from contacting the company directly compared to using the official career portal.

At SUTD, plenty of opportunities for people of different interests are available, and those with a keen desire to do research work will find that plenty of research opportunities are abound. During the first few weeks in school, we would like to nudge you to think about topics you are interested in, do a bit of your own research/reading, and figure out if you would like to pursue it as a UROP!

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP)

Funding: Up to $1500 per project.

UROPs are the main source of research opportunities for undergraduate students. There are 2 ways that one can join an UROP:

  1. Applying for a project listed by a Professor/Faculty member on MyPortal. Students are to contact project supervisors to discuss the details of the project before applying.
  2. No projects to suit your fancy? Pitch your own project! At SUTD, the professors and faculty are more than willing to support/guide students in their own initiated projects. If you have an idea that you feel is worth exploring, but lack the guidance and financial support to do so, a self-initiated UROP is always a good idea.

IDC-UROP

Funding: Up to $2000 per student in project group.

Have an idea you're super keen on exploring, but UROP funding is insufficient? Consider applying for a self-initiated project with the International Design Centre. Some examples of ongoing IDC-UROPs can be found here (they are slightly outdated though).

Of course, all funding comes at a price. IDC-UROPs require a detailed proposal and a comprehensive final report detailing the full scope, methods and findings of the project upon the conclusion of the UROP (only good practice, really).

Watch out for an email from IDC for an open call for new UROP proposals.

At SUTD, there are plenty of overseas opportunities as well. Here, we list down 3 types of overseas opportunities that you can participate in as a Freshmore (FACT and Summer Programmes) and after Term 5 (GEXP)!

Freshmore Asian Cross-curricular Trips (FACT)

The FACT team is conducting an information session for FACT on 30 Sep, Wed, 5:30pm. You can find more details about the info session here.

For more information about FACT:

Summer Programmes

SUTD has a suite of short-term summer programmes catering to the diverse interests of our students. Undergraduate students will benefit from spending a fulfilling summer abroad catering to varied interests – thematic projects, academic study, entrepreneurship or research.

Look out for the upcoming information session!

Summer 2021 Virtual Information Session For more information about Summer Programmes:

Global Exchange Programme (GEXP)

To better the world, first see and experience the world!

GEXP provides SUTD undergraduates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend an exciting term living and learning in one of our partner universities worldwide. It allows students to experience an international education and cultural immersion while developing global perspectives.

Students will be able to transfer credits earned in our partner universities back to SUTD. Grades received will not be counted towards CGPA. Students will continue to pay tuition fees to SUTD while tuition fees at the host university is waived. These full immersion opportunities aim to enhance SUTD students’ global perspectives.

Currently, there are 34 partner universities in 17 exciting destinations for you to choose from!

  1. Aalto University, Finland
  2. City University of Hong Kong
  3. Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
  4. Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
  5. Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
  6. Hanyang University, South Korea
  7. IE University, Spain
  8. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
  9. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
  10. Lehigh University, USA
  11. Mahidol University, Thailand
  12. National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
  13. National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
  14. National Taiwan University
  15. Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea
  16. Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea
  17. Tampere University of Technology, Finland
  18. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
  19. Texas A&M University, USA
  20. The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  21. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  22. The University of British Columbia, Canada
  23. Tianjin University, China
  24. Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  25. University of Bristol, England
  26. University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), USA
  27. University of Maryland, USA
  28. University of Seoul, South Korea
  29. University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  30. University of Technology Sydney, Australia
  31. University of Twente, Netherlands
  32. University of Waterloo, Canada
  33. Uppsala University, Sweden
  34. Yonsei University, South Korea
For more information about GEXP:

It is not uncommon to have multiple assignments due in the same week (or day), along with multiple project checkpoints or submissions in certain weeks (often right before or after recess week). You should mentally prepare yourself for the workload.

Here are some tips to help manage the workload:

Social Platforms

Useful Tools Developed by SUTDents for SUTDents

Telegram Bots / Channels

Others

Congratulations! You have reached the end of this guide.

Hope you enjoy your very own DiscoverSUTD adventure!

Wish you the best of luck, and have fun in SUTD!

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